Chapter 104: Embarrassingly Short of Money
Translator: _Dark_Angel_ Editor: Kurisu
Mo Gao was also astonished.
In his opinion, any student that would have been shoved to him must have come into the Academy through a backdoor; there was not much future in developing such a student, and that was why he would be “wasting his time” with Mo Gao. Just now, he had spoken for so long and so much… rather than saying that he was teaching Ling Han, it was more appropriate to say that he had all of these words stuffed inside him for too long, so he desperately wanted to share them with someone else.
He did not consider at all whether Ling Han could understand what he was saying or not.
He had never thought that Ling Han would really have understood his lecture. Moreover, after digesting the information he had blurted out, Ling Han very quickly managed to form a new flash of Sword Qi.
If it was only a single flash of Sword Qi, he could still accept it. The problem was that Ling Han had already possessed five flashes of Sword Qi in the first place!
Five flashes of Sword Qi, what kind of concept was that?
Three flashes of Sword Qi and you would be able to claim the name of ruler. Five flashes, and that was a minor achievement. This was definitely a genius, and it was very likely that he had surpassed all those of the same age in Rain Country. But how could such a genius be shoved onto him to be taught?
Mo Gao really couldn’t understand. However, when his thoughts took a different turn, he became extremely delighted. Because, Ling Han was now his student, and the higher the achievements his student managed to attain in the future, the prouder he would become.
“Teacher, there are some parts I didn’t really understand,” Ling Han questioned Mo Gao after he had withdrawn his sword.
With regards to the level of understanding of martial arts, he was more than qualified to be the Grandmaster of the Grandmaster of Mo Gao. But if it was only looking at the comprehension of the art of the sword, Mo Gao was above him. The reasons were simple. Firstly, Mo Gao had immersed himself in the art of the sword for ten plus years, and secondly, he was indeed a genius swordsman.
“Whatever you don’t understand, just say it,” Mo Gao immediately said. It had been more than ten years, when had he ever been asked questions by a student?
Ling Han raised some of his doubts, and Mo Gao immediately gave him a lecture based on his own understanding. Through this process, he also obtained a great enlightenment for himself. One has to know that though Ling Han himself had not spent much time on the art of the sword, his knowledge as a former warrior of Heaven Tier was still there, so the questions he asked were all core questions.
Mo Gao continuously made sounds like ‘yi’, ‘ya’, and ‘oh’, his eyes becoming brighter and brighter. His expression was one of both delight and frustration, seemingly unable to contain his present joy. Unknowingly, the time had arrived at noontime. Mo Gao gave a long sigh, and said, “Your talent in the art of the sword is higher than mine. I do not have the face to become your teacher. Let’s just do it this way, the both of us will treat each other as friends of the same generation, and have frequent discussions with each other.”
Ling Han shook his head, and said, “In the art of the sword, Teacher Mo indeed has the qualifications to become my teacher. Even if I surpass Teacher Mo in the art of the sword someday, I will never forget the favor Teacher Mo has done by teaching me today.”
Mo Gao was deeply moved. He would actually encounter such an exceptionally talented student. It was a pity that he was not qualified enough to take Ling Han as disciple. Their teacher-student relationship too was only formed because of the Academy.
“Oh~!” Hu Niu said pitifully, tugging on Ling Han’s sleeve.
“All right, all right, let’s go eat!” Ling Han bade Mo Gao goodbye and left the Academy. He then found a random restaurant, ordered some main dishes of meat and fish, and began feasting together with Hu Niu.
If you wanted to eat with this little girl, you really needed to be quick enough. Otherwise, whenever a dish was served, it would definitely be gone within mere moments.
One meal actually cost over a thousand silver coins, causing Ling Han to cry out that he really did not have enough money to spend.
This was because the prices in the Imperial City were very high, and this little girl really had too big an appetite.
He really needed to concoct some alchemical pills to earn money. Otherwise, it’d be a problem just feeding Hu Niu, what more to buy resources for his own cultivation.
There was nothing to be done about it. He had just arrived at the Imperial City yesterday, so there was a thousand things for him to do. He would have to start everything all over again.
Ling Han held onto Hu Niu’s tiny hand, and asked around the people on the streets. This way, he soon found Heaven’s Medicine Pavilion.
It really did deserve the name of the Heaven’s Medicine Pavilion of the Imperial City. Merely the flight of a thousand steps leading to the entrance was impressive enough to provoke gasps of amazement. The steps were as wide as a hundred metres, slanting all the way upwards. There was an extremely glamorous, luxurious giant hall to be seen at the high level of three hundred metres upwards.
Ling Han and Hu Niu climbed the stairs and entered the Heaven’s Medicine Pavilion. Once they entered, they saw a sweet-looking female attendant responsible for sales walking forward to greet them, saying, “Honorable customer, how do you do? I am Xiao Ying. May I know what kind of alchemical pills you require?”
“I don’t need any alchemical pills. I only need some ingredients,” Ling Han said with a smile.
“May I know what ingredients you require?” Xiao Ying asked again.
Ling Han recited the list of ingredients he required; Xiao Ying had obviously been trained for a very long time. While she memorized the names and amounts of the ingredients, she even informed him of the prices of the individual ingredients.
“Honored customer, your bill comes to a total of three hundred and twenty thousand silver coins,” Xiao Ying said with a slight smile.
Heaven’s Medicine Pavilion needed to depend on the sale of completed pills to earn money. In case of ingredients, unless they were especially valuable—for example, like the Second Star Grass—their price would only be a bit higher than their cost. Thus, even if this was a huge purchase, the profit made by the Heaven’s Medicine Pavilion was really not much. As a result, the amount of commission she could earn would naturally not be much either.
Three hundred and twenty thousand!
Ling Han sighed. He only had about a hundred plus thousand on hand. This was far from the amount that was necessary. But he wanted to concoct the Second Star Pill as soon as possible, so he said, “Please inform Fu Yuan Sheng for me. Just tell him that Ling Han is looking for him.”
“Fu Yuan Sheng? The, the, the Pavilion Master!” Xiao Ying was stunned for a moment, before suddenly realizing. Immediately, she was so shocked that she had even begun to stutter.
What kind of remote existence was the Pavilion Master? Aside from the Rain Emperor, there was no one who possessed a higher status than their Pavilion Master. Even the Clan Heads of the Eight Great Clans were only able to stand on equal footing with the Pavilion Master.
And now, a young man actually said he wanted to see the Pavilion Master. This was naturally troubling to her; there was no reason for her to inform the Pavilion Master of this at all.
“It’s all right. You only need to tell him that I am Ling Han, and I believe Fu Yuan Sheng should even reward you,” Ling Han said with a smile.
That was natural. He, the Alchemy Emperor, was here personally; Fu Yuan Sheng would definitely be overjoyed.
How would Xiao Ying dare to believe that? No matter how she looked, Ling Han looked to be only a young man of about seventeen or eighteen years old, so how could he possibly know the Pavilion Master? Even if the Clan Heads of the Eight Great Clans were here, whether or not the Pavilion Master would agree to meet with them depended on his mood.
But in the training that she had received, the most important thing was not to offend any customers. Thus, she apologized and said, “At my rank, I am unable to personally see the Pavilion Master, so please wait for a moment while I report this to the Branch Manager.”
Ling Han would naturally not cause her unnecessary trouble, so he simply nodded, and sat down somewhere.
Hu Niu saw him sit down and imitated him. She climbed up to Ling Han’s lap, and similarly sat very earnestly.
After a while, they saw Xiao Ying walked behind a man who appeared to be in his forties and the pair was heading towards them. She looked to be in a bit of a panic.
“Brat, so you’re the one who wants to see our Pavilion Master?’ This middle-aged man looked at Ling Han disdainfully. He had heard what Xiao Ying had to say. In his opinion, Ling Han must have been embarrassingly short of money, which was why he had deliberately said he knew the Pavilion Master, thinking of using this way to bargain for a cheaper price.
He was really too naive.
Ling Han’s brow frowned, and he said, “You should speak more politely.”
“If you have no money, then don’t pretend to be so capable!” The middle-aged man humphed, laughed loudly and said, “If you really do know the Pavilion Master, then I will eat this whole table.”
He pointed at a long table at one side.
Ling Han put on a smile, and said, “I did not think you would have this kind of hobby. If I don’t satisfy you, then wouldn’t that be too unreasonable of me?”
“You’re spouting nonsense!” The middle-aged man said coldly.